


Ask The Lonely

by icewhisper



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Post-Uchiha Massacre, Pre-Series, someone protect these children because the adults sure aren't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25712437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: He wanted to yell at them, to scream that their whispers hurt, that they didn’t understand what it was like to be alone, and couldn’t they see that Sasuke was shaking?After the Uchiha die, Naruto watches Sasuke and understands.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	Ask The Lonely

The Uchiha died and Sasuke didn’t come to school for a month.

Everyone talked about it at first, kids parroting their parents, and whispers floating through the classroom when their sensei wasn’t paying attention. Eyes that stared out windows and watched smoke billow into the air, but never saying the words  _ mass cremation _ , because it was another reminder that a family that, once, had been strong and powerful in Konoha was, now, only one.

One seven-year-old child who made up for being small for his age with being the best in the class.

One seven-year-old who Naruto had watched beat his fists and feet bloody against training dummies, but who people always said wasn’t good enough.

_ “He’s good, but he’s not Itachi.” _

No one talked about Itachi, now. They avoided his name until, slowly, it was like they’d forgotten who the other surviving Uchiha was — like they’d  _ wanted  _ to forget.

He wondered if Sasuke would ever be able to forget like that.

Remembered hearing Iruka-sensei murmuring to Kurenai-sensei —  _ “He saw everything.”  _ — and had a feeling he never would.

Sasuke was different when he came back. He’d always been focused in class, but he used to smile. He used to laugh with his friends at lunch.

Now, he sat in class with his brows furrowed, hand clenched around his pencil tight enough that he'd snapped it once. Everybody kept whispering, voices loud enough that Naruto could hear them halfway across the room. He knew Sasuke could hear it too.

He wanted to yell at all of them, to tell them to shut up, because it wasn’t any of their business. They were only talking about it again now, because Sasuke had finally come back to school, paler and a little skinnier than he’d been a month ago. He wanted to yell at them, to scream that their whispers hurt, that they didn’t understand what it was like to be alone, and couldn’t they see that Sasuke was shaking? He wanted to snap at Sasuke’s friends and ask why they were sitting so far away and why were they whispering too?

He didn’t say anything. He ducked his head and bit his lip until it bled, but he didn’t say anything. Sasuke and he had never been friends. They butted heads in class and in training, but they’d never been  _ friends _ . Naruto didn’t  _ have _ friends.

But neither, it seemed, did Sasuke now.

Sasuke skipped lunch and Naruto watched out the window as he attacked a training dummy with his fists instead of kunai.

He came back with bruised knuckles and Iruka-sensei looked worried.

Sasuke didn’t say a word.

Iruka-sensei tried to talk to him after class, but Sasuke ignored him and ignored Naruto lingering behind them both as he left.

“Is he okay?” he asked Iruka-sensei quietly as he stared after Sasuke, guilty, because for a second after the news had swept through the village, a selfish part of him had been  _ happy  _ that he wasn’t the only one alone anymore. Now, the fact that he’d felt it at all made something sick settle in his stomach.

Iruka-sensei sighed. “No,” he told him, because Iruka-sensei didn’t lie to Naruto. He was the only adult who ever told him the truth. “I don’t think he is.”

He wanted to ask who had been there with Sasuke for the funerals, but no one else had been missing from class and Iruka-sensei had spent half the day watching the dark smoke with a look that made Naruto think he’d wanted to be standing with his student.

He had a feeling no one had.

Sasuke didn’t go back to the way he used to be. He just got more quiet and more alone. 

His birthday passed that August and no one talked about it.

Naruto wondered if anyone had spent the day with him or if he’d spent it alone like Naruto spent most of his. Wondered if  _ he _ should have tried to go and make sure that Sasuke had some company, but… They weren’t friends. Sasuke didn’t have friends anymore and Naruto had never had them at all.

It didn’t mean he didn’t consider it, because he and Sasuke were the same now. Alone. Othered. People looked at them and they whispered, but they didn’t try to help. Iruka-sensei tried to and Naruto let him most of the time, but Sasuke never did. He simply came to school, trained, and left.

He saw him some days after school let out, curled up at the end of the bridge that overlooked the river.

No one ever sat with him, same as no one ever sat with Naruto.

For months, he let it be. He walked by and, sometimes, Sasuke noticed him. Annoyed looks and huffs of acknowledgement until, finally, the huffs turned into… Naruto wouldn’t call them smiles — not at first — but there was an understanding there. They still fought at school and Naruto still wanted to punch Sasuke in his stupid face more often than he didn't, but even with the rivalry that was starting to brew between them, there was a sameness.

When the anniversary came, though, Naruto didn’t realize. He didn’t  _ think _ . Sasuke didn’t go to school that day and he’d been halfway to mumbling bitterly about how good grades didn’t mean Sasuke could just  _ skip _ , but Kiba started whispering to Shikamaru about the date and he’d only barely said Sasuke’s name when Iruka-sensei chided him for it. It didn't stop people from talking about it.

"Why did he do it?" he asked Iruka-sensei that night once his ramen bowl was empty. The words came out softly, but guilt and shame churned in his stomach like he'd screamed it. It wasn't his place to ask, same as it wasn't their classmates' place to whisper about it, but he still wondered.

He remembered Sasuke's brother waiting for him after school and the way Sasuke used to smile.

He still doesn't understand what happened.

Iruka-sensei set his chopsticks down and sighed. "We don't know," he said regretfully and Naruto wondered if he'd known Sasuke's brother. Had he taught him too? Fought with him? Sasuke’s brother must have known other people in the village. Had anyone seen this coming? Could someone have stopped it?

Why did he leave Sasuke all alone?

Sasuke was even quieter than normal at school the next day, shoulders hunched and head bent towards his books like he could feel their classmates staring. They weren’t talking about it anymore, but people  _ knew _ . Ino and Sakura tried to fight for the spot next to him and he got up without a word.

He sat in the empty seat between Naruto and the wall instead and went right back to his book like he knew sitting next to Naruto meant people wouldn’t come near him. Naruto opened his mouth to snap at him for it, but Iruka-sensei started class and the chance was gone. It probably wouldn’t have been worth it, anyway, he thought. It was only fun to fight with Sasuke when Sasuke fought back and the other boy didn’t look like he’d slept.

“Today, we’re going to be working with shuriken,” Iruka-sensei announced before he started lecturing about the proper way to hold it and how to aim. Naruto fought to stay awake, muttering under his breath that they already  _ knew _ all this and why can’t they just go throw them now?

Wished he could take the words back after, because someone’s shuriken — and this time, it wasn’t  _ his _ — went too wide and Sasuke had frozen. It sliced through his upper arm before it stuck itself in the wall behind him and Sasuke just…

He didn’t move. He got paler than usual and Naruto didn’t  _ know _ someone that pale  _ could _ go paler, but he did. He flinched away when Iruka-sensei went to look at the cut, jaw clenched shut as it got bandaged.

After, Sasuke’s shuriken missed the target for the first time that Naruto had ever seen.

His hands were still shaking at lunch, bad enough that he couldn’t hold his chopsticks, and he slipped his food back into his bag without eating.

Naruto left the school an hour after it actually ended that night, cuffs dusted white from his last night of detention with Iruka-sensei. He hated banging out erasers and Iruka-sensei  _ knew it _ , but he’d at least saved it for the last night of his week-long  _ this is why we don’t prank guest lecturers  _ punishment.

He took his usual route home, making his way out of the village’s busier paths so he could walk around it instead and see the water.

Sasuke was down on the bridge like usual when he went by and he was prepared to keep walking like normal, but his feet carried him down the hill instead. He could push him in, he thought. It would at least be a reason for him to go down at all, but as he got closer, he saw the tight way Sasuke’s knees were pulled towards his chest.

Saw his shoulders shaking.

He should walk away. Sasuke didn’t even  _ like him _ , so he’d probably like Naruto seeing him cry even less, but… He remembered what yesterday was and how quiet the other boy had been all day. Remembered that Sasuke was alone, too, and being alone when you’re sad about being alone just makes it all  _ worse _ .

Sasuke stiffened when he got close, but Naruto didn’t even look over as he sat next to him at the edge. He stared out at the water pointedly and didn’t say anything. Every bit of him wanted to say  _ something _ or to fidget, but he didn’t know what to say and Sasuke was skittish as a pissed off cat on his best day.

So he sat still and he stayed quiet in every way that made his skin crawl until, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sasuke uncurl from his tight ball. His own stomach growled and he remembered Sasuke hadn’t eaten anything at lunch. It was getting late, though. The sun was starting to set.

“You wanna get ramen?” he asked quietly and didn’t look as Sasuke scrubbed a fist under his eyes.

Sasuke pulled in a breath that only sounded a little shaky, nodded, and stood. He held out a hand to help Naruto up. Naruto took it and figured that whatever peace offering this was between them was temporary. They’d go back to sniping at each other tomorrow.

Tonight, though, they didn’t need to be alone.

He kept two fingers linked through two of Sasuke’s the entire way to Ichiraku’s.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Something that always strikes me about Naruto's understanding of his and Sasuke's friendship in the first run of the series is that, for a while, he thinks his alone and Sasuke's alone are the same. Sasuke tells him at the Valley of the End that they're not, that Sasuke is suffering _because_ he had a family and lost it. Naruto's understanding, in reality, is a bit misguided, even here, because he's young. He doesn't understand the turmoil in Sasuke the way he thinks he does. Naruto's understanding and his attempts come with good intentions, but there's a disconnection there, too, because Naruto doesn't remember having and losing a family the way Sasuke has. In the direct aftermath of the massacre, Naruto sees a child who is alone and whispered about and latches onto the familiarity, because he understands that part of what Sasuke is experiencing. Similar isn't the same, but he tries.


End file.
